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February 11, 2014, the date the protest is scheduled, is a month after the one-year anniversary of the suicide of [[Aaron Swartz]], the founder of [[Demand Progress]].<ref name="PCWorld" /><ref name="MintPress News" /><ref name="International Business Times" /> At the time of Swartz's death he was being prosecuted with fraud for downloading research articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<ref name="macfarquhar">{{cite news |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/11/130311fa_fact_macfarquhar |title=Requiem for a dream: The tragedy of Aaron Swartz |work=[[The New Yorker]] |first=Larissa |last=MacFarquhar |date=March 11, 2013 |quote=[Swartz] wrote a script that instructed his computer to download articles continuously, something that was forbidden by JSTOR's terms of service....&nbsp; He spoofed the computer's address....&nbsp; This happened several times.&nbsp; MIT traced the requests to his laptop, which he had hidden in an unlocked closet.}}</ref><ref name="peters">{{cite news |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/02/aaron_swartz_he_wanted_to_save_the_world_why_couldn_t_he_save_himself.6.html |title=The Idealist: Aaron Swartz wanted to save the world. Why couldn't he save himself? |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |first=Justin |last=Peters |page=6 |date=February 7, 2013 |quote=The superseding indictment ... claimed that Swartz had ‘contrived to break into a restricted-access wiring closet at MIT.'&nbsp; But the closet door had been unlocked—and remained unlocked even after the university and authorities were aware that someone had been in there trying to access the school's network.}}</ref><ref name="CBS_20120112">{{cite news |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57563656/co-founder-of-reddit-aaron-swartz-found-dead/ |title=Co-founder of Reddit Aaron Swartz found dead |work=CBS News |date=January 12, 2013 |accessdate=January 12, 2013 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20130113042659/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57563656/co-founder-of-reddit-aaron-swartz-found-dead/ |archivedate=January 13, 2013}}</ref> Many commentators viewed the prosecution, which would have imposed a devastating prison term for accessing information in bulk rather than one article at a time, as bullying that lead to Swartz's death.<ref name="lessig-obituary">{{cite web |url=http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully |title=Prosecutor as bully |work=Lessig Blog, v2 |first=Lawrence |last=Lessig |date=January 12, 2013 |accessdate=January 12, 2013}}</ref><ref name="NYT2013">{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html |title=Internet Activist, a Creator of RSS, Is Dead at 26, Apparently a Suicide |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=John |last=Schwartz |date=January 12, 2013 |accessdate=January 13, 2013}}</ref> Swartz's father, Robert Swartz, said that "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles", and [[Noam Chomsky]] has stated that its role was primarily negative by failing to take action that could have mitigated the charges.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/01/11/mit-website-hacked-by-anonymous-announces-the-day-we-fight-back/ |title=Anonymous Hacks MIT Website in Memory of Aaron Swartz, Announces 'The Day We Fight Back' |work=BostInno |publisher=Streetwise Media |first=Lauren |last=Landry |date=January 11, 2014}}</ref> Swartz's brother, Noah Swartz, is "actively organizing" the February 11 event.<ref name = Goodman />
 
In another announcement of The Day We Fight Back on January 10, David Segal said in a statement,▼
In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" discussion on January 10, 2014, a statement after which questions were fielded from readers of the site, organizers of the event identified themselves as
 
* "[[Cory Doctorow]], writer, activist, editor of BoingBoing and close friend of Aaron Swartz"
* "[[Brian Knappenberger]], filmmaker of [[The Internet's Own Boy]] about Aaron, and [[We Are Legion]]"
* "[[David Segal (politician)|David Segal]], co-founder of [[Demand Progress]] with Aaron"
* "[[Peter Eckersley]] of [[Electronic Frontier Foundation|EFF]], and close friend of Aaron"
* "[[Sina Khanifar]] is a developer who's been behind many of the great activism sites of the last year or so, including https://TheDayWeFightBack.org/"
 
Comparing the opposition to surveillance to the previous defeat of SOPA, in which Demand Progress had been deeply involved, they called for a month of action culminating in February 11 protests which would be at once a commemoration of Swartz's death and an action against censorship and surveillance.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1uw05k/aaron_swartz_passed_away_a_year_ago_tomorrow_we/|title=Aaron Swartz passed away a year ago tomorrow. We are Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, Peter Eckersley (EFF), and David Segal (Demand Progress) here to talk about Aaron and a protest we're organizing on 02/11 in his honor. Ask us anything. (self.IAmA)|author=Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, Peter Eckersley (EFF), and David Segal (Demand Progress)|publisher=Reddit AMA|date=2014-01-10}}</ref>
 
▲In another announcement of The Day We Fight Back on January 10, David Segal said in a statement,
{{blockquote|Today the greatest threat to a free Internet, and broader free society, is the National Security Agency's mass spying regime. If Aaron were alive he'd be on the front lines, fighting back against these practices that undermine our ability to engage with each other as genuinely free human beings.<ref name="Motherboard, Vice">{{cite web |url=http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/internet-activists-look-back-at-aaron-swartzs-life-as-the-day-we-fight-back-approaches |title=Internet Activists Look Back at Aaron Swartz's Life as 'The Day We Fight Back' Approaches |work=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |series=Motherboard |first=D.J. |last=Pangburn |date=January 13, 2014 |accessdate=January 15, 2014}}</ref><ref name="net-security">{{cite web |url=http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=16199 |title=Privacy advocates announce day of protest against NSA spying |work=Help Net Security |date=January 13, 2014 |accessdate=January 15, 2014}}</ref>}}
 
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